Barbies: Life in Plastic Not Always Fantastic

The four of us-Bo, Chicken, Lishes, & Ashes loved our Barbie dolls.  When we were kids we had every Barbie and Barbie-ish kind of doll you can imagine.  There was Ballerina Barbie, Hollywood Barbie, Birthday Barbie, Teacher Barbie, Mermaid Barbie, and the list goes on and on.

Though we had every Barbie you could imagine we only had a few Kens: Hollywood Ken, Ballerina Ken (or as we referred to him as 'the Ken with shoes'), and Beach Ken.

Mom & Dad encouraged our creativity and would even let us set-up huge cities that took over all of the downstairs rooms.  We didn't have that many doll houses so we built our own, using colored pencils, belts, and other random bits to outline walls and rooms for our Barbies to live in.

Chicken's OCD could be seen in all of her Barbie house creations.  She was very careful with the items she used to create her house and everything was sectioned off equally.  She even had an American flag in the front of her house, a garage, and equally proportioned kid's rooms.

Besides the four of us kids we also had dogs. 
Dogs and Barbies don't mix, as illustrated by this math equation:

(Infinity Barbies + 4 kids)/ 2 Dogs = Barbie 911

We were young and felt unbelievably terrible for our "handicapped Barbies."  It wasn't their fault that the dog ate their leg or arm off because it resembled a rawhide treat.
So these "Handicapped Barbies" were given the star treatment.  Whenever we would divide up the dolls to play they were always picked first (after the Ken's of course because they were an endangered species).  They always were given the best clothes and professions.

At one point, Mom told us we needed to give some of our dolls away because we had too many.  But when she came to collect a few of them our numbers had been mysteriously cut in half.  We hide them in our closets and in the gap between the wall and bed in our respective rooms.

Our Barbies always went on luxurious vacations;
from visiting the Alps (filling a Rubbermaid container full of snow and bringing it into the house),
going on a cruise (filling a Rubbermaid container full of water),
having a pool party (filling a Rubbermaid container full of water),
and visiting the beach (going out to the sand box with a Rubbermaid container full of water).

We wanted our Barbies to have fluid movements, so we went through the tedious task of stop-motion and developed a new found respect for the art form.  We spent countless hours creating scenes that only ended up lasting a few minutes of our Barbies eating or drinking.

Our Barbies also led very complicated lives, much more complicated than your everyday soap opera.  We always found a way to link all of them together somehow (you know the whole 6 degrees of separation). 

BoBo always let everyone pick their dolls and jobs first so she ended up with the leftovers.  Her dolls always faced financial complications and a lack of clothing.  Even though our Barbie money was invisible, BoBo always was scrambling to find invisible coupons to buy the tiny plastic container of waffles.  Also, whenever their was a ball, Bo's dolls couldn't afford to buy fancy dresses so they could go.  Invisible Barbie money doesn't grow on trees you know.
Chicken: Lame moment from your childhood Bo.  Where's your imagination?

There were also love octagons; since we only had three Ken dolls all of the Barbies were always fighting for their affections.

Chicken's main Barbie, Samantha the Indian Barbie, was a spokesperson for Native American rights and was the richest of all the dolls; mainly because she owned two of our Barbie cars and the Barbie horse.  She also called dibs on all the fancy clothes.

Yes, our Barbies lived complex interesting lives; and frequently vacationed at tropical, often exotic locations; sadly, only one our REAL lives turned out that way.  

Can you guess who it was?

Was it Chicken the Native American spokesperson with the horse and the mansion?

Was it Ashes with the fancy clothes in the grocery store?

Or was it Lishes with the Barbie jeep and the beauty boutique that specializes only in braids?

No, it wasn't them.

It was BoBo, with the lack of clothes and financial instability in the old farm house.

*Photos are from Chicken's visit to the Children Musuem's Barbie Fashion Exhibit.*